I'm giving this bag 5 stars. I preface this by saying international travel with kids and all their stuff can be stressful. I genuinely think this would make a solid bag for most people, however this bag nearly upended my families trip to Asia. Spoiler, it didn't, but please enjoy my story.
I ordered the original Mountain Buggy bag from a different retailer, when it arrived, it was way too small (designed for a single) I didn't even know MB made a bag of this size. It was inexpensive but un-returnable...oh well I can use it for other things I suppose...no harm done. The trip was two weeks away which meant I had enough time to get the XL bag direct from MB's website (finally in stock) woohoo. I ordered it but strange enough never got a shipping notice during the week I ordered it (which is customary). Within a few days I reached a very nice customer service person who tried to find out why something in-stock hadn't shipped. They weren't able to glean any info and so I left a few voicemails/email messages with corporate, no reply (p.s. surprisingly difficult to find a phone number for MB). I figured that if this thing doesn't ship asap, I will not be getting this bag in time to travel.
There is really no great alternative out there that I could find that works for the duet so I tried to find another MB XL bag elsewhere. To my surprise an open-box one showed up on Amazon with very fast shipping so I yolo ordered another one just to be on the safe side. The XL via Amazon would get to my home 3 days before we leave, plenty of time of course and if for some reason the MB shows up, I can return the Amazon XL... power move on my part!
I excitedly told my family how smart it was for me to have a stroller bag inbound & a backup just in case! Everyone was jubilant, I felt like a real boss dad, we ate ice-cream and gave each other pat's on the backs, even the one-year-old was relieved, you could tell. The celebrating was cut short in the morning when I checked the Amazon account and the delivery date had moved....to the day after we were leaving! Dread started to take over, I no longer had my 'ace in the hole' and not only that...a high-end bag is going to get delivered to the house while no-one is home, we will be gone for 45 days...THATS OUTSIDE THE RETURN WINDOW!
I told the family what transpired, and they didn't really understand the gravity of this bag situation, maybe if they did they would have offered some creative solutions or at least told me it was gonna be alright. I decided I would sleep on it and figure something out in the AM.
Morning came and the dread woke up too, I figured we just won't have our beloved stroller on the trip or we will have to buy something when we get there. Anything that we buy just won't be of the quality or ruggedness that we come to expect from the MB family of strollers...it would be like driving a golf-cart instead of a 4-Runner.
I emailed the MB rep one last time in the early morning hours of January 28th, since I knew the bag hadn't shipped yet it would be my last BOLD ultimatum. I couldn't even believe I wrote these word, "If this bag will not deliver by 9pm January 29th, CANCEL THIS ORDER" "and thanks for all your help, you are too kind."
As an atheist, I don't really mess with prayer, but I'd be d*mned if I didn't send my prayers to the moon and back that day. At 9:34 AM I received the most inspired 'form email' in my inbox.
"Hello Matthew,
We're happy to let you know that your order has been shipped!"
And it was going deliver from Missouri to NY in 1.5 days? to arrive the day before we travel, how is this possible. What did I do to deserve this, was it the email prodding, the phone call or the ice-cream? We will never know for sure, but a weight was lifted off my shoulders and put onto a Fedex ground truck, now out for delivery.
When the package arrived, it was huge. The family gathered around like they were seeing a color TV for the first time. I had staged the stroller in the living room and watched the instructional MB videos so this last piece to be packed would be simple.
Unfortunately our many years of packing experience didn't prep us for the worlds tightest fitting stroller bag in history. We pulled off the wheels, we turned it in all 4 positions, we stretched it, we pried on it, this stroller was within a half inch of fitting, and we didn't have a half inch to spare.
I finally pushed from one direction while my partner pulled from the other side and got the zipper just above the lip of lower hinge, it was in but barely and a very pointy edge was pushing so hard into the bag that a rip was eminent once it headed under a plane. We zipped the stroller up, I wiped the sweat off my brow and decided that we made it this far we might as well just go with it.
All this is to say, turns out these bags are not designed for older Duets, like ours, read the website carefully. I am blessed as I now own three of this bag and non...